Patch 7.1h changes

Our take

This moves Thresh from a purely protective support toward one who threatens damage himself. Death Sentence gains a lot of base damage and AP scaling, and its cooldown falls faster as it ranks up, so landing it pays off far more. Flay improves on both the empowered attack and the active. In exchange, Dark Passage's shield is thinner, weakening the protective half of his kit. The wider soul drop range at least makes stacking his passive easier.

Our take

Nunu & Willump's payoff for stacking HP shrinks on both ends. Consume converts less bonus HP into damage and into regeneration, so a tanky build recovers more slowly while rotating through camps. Snowball Barrage loses 2 at every rank as well, cutting the pressure he brings when he shows up in a lane. Building HP is still the right direction — it simply scales more gently than before.

Our take

Surround Sound heals 1% more, which quietly adds up across an entire team in a fight. Encore is the larger change: a quarter second more charm at every rank widens the window her team has to pile on. That may sound trivial, but it is often exactly the difference between fitting in one more ability and not, which is what decides whether an opening engage converts.

Our take

All of Skarner's growth stats move up, so the buff compounds the longer a game runs. Three more HP regen cuts the health he bleeds over a full jungle rotation, letting him roll into the next camp instead of recalling. Both Shattered Earth and Seismic Bastion slow 5% harder as well, which helps him stick to a fleeing target and gives his team a longer window to follow up.

Our take

This is aimed squarely at Nautilus in the jungle. Both abilities are brought down to the same 125% against monsters, which visibly slows his early clear. Titan's Wrath also loses 4% max HP on its shield, so tanking camps while he clears is harder too. Compared with running him in support or baron lane, the case for putting him in the jungle is now much thinner.

Our take

Transformed Gnar can shoulder a heavier role now. The upper end of his HP and both resistances rises, so the durability gap widens as he levels. The lower ends of AR and MR each go up by 1 as well, meaning the transform feels stronger from the early game rather than only late. Hyper also deals 1% more max HP damage at every rank, letting him cut through durable targets faster and making it easier to justify stepping up to trade.

Our take

Taliyah's defining strength — covering ground quickly — is cut in three places at once. Five less base movement speed plus 5% less from Rock Surfing at every rank makes rotating between lanes and joining fights clearly slower. The reduced Worked Ground refund also slows how fast she can keep casting from the same spot to clear a wave. Through the early and mid game she simply cannot visit other lanes as often.

Our take

The heal goes up by 20 at every rank, a large jump in how much Sona can hold a lane together. Song of Celerity gives her 5% more movement speed on herself, which helps her fix a bad position or slip out of a collapsing fight. For a champion this fragile once someone closes the gap, extra speed converts directly into survival. She loses far fewer early trades as a result.

Our take

An extra 150 HP pushes the item clearly toward offering real durability alongside its damage. Chempunk Chainsword is usually bought to apply healing reduction, and applying it means staying close to the target, so the added HP fits what the item is for. Bruisers holding the front line can now delay a dedicated defensive item by one purchase, which opens up their build order.

Our take

Games that are already decided can be wrapped up sooner, but passing the vote got harder. Being able to call it at 7 minutes means a match that fell apart early does not have to drag on. Since it takes 70% agreement, though, teammates who want to keep playing can hold the game open. The pairing gives teams a faster exit from lost games without letting one bad fight end a winnable one.